A life-long com­mit­ment to social evo­lu­tion — and, occa­sion­al­ly, rev­o­lu­tion — ani­mates the poems in Jo-Ann Mort’s debut col­lec­tion, A Pre­cise Chaos. Mov­ing from Mostar to Oax­a­ca, Paris to Taormi­na, Mort’s peri­patet­ic poems reflect her expe­ri­ences as a trade union activist, a polit­i­cal orga­niz­er, and a peace activist in the Mid­dle East. Refus­ing to evade the hard ques­tions called for by a life hon­est­ly exam­ined, she asks: ​“We, who are so righteous./Where does it lead us?” By pub­lish­ing her first col­lec­tion in her six­ties, Mort suc­ceeds in dis­till­ing a wealth of expe­ri­ence into some­thing like wis­dom: ​“The men were larg­er than life/​starting rev­o­lu­tions in their heads and in their classrooms…//The men were larg­er than life, /​so life elud­ed them.”